Medical School Professor Robert Coles and a panel of experts discussed the crisis facing children in the nation's urban ghettos at the Kennedy School of Government last night.

Besides Coles, the speakers included Kennedy School Professor Mary Jo Bane and author Alex Kotzlowitz.

The panel discussion, entitled "Voices of Our Children in Crisis," concentrated on the 25 percent of American children currently living below the poverty line.

David Ellwood, professor of public policy at the Kennedy School, introduced the panelists.

Kotzlowitz, the author of There Are No Children Here, led the discussion. His book chronicles the lives of several children living in a Chicago public housing project.

Before an audience of 300 student and faculty members, Kotzlowitz said the primary cause of childhood problems was the deterioration of the community, which stem from a lack of communication.

He said an "emotional loneliness" prevented members of the community from interacting with one another.

The loss of friends and family to drugs, gang violence and other criminal activity has a demoralizing effect on the children's own sense of future, he said.

Kotzlowitz called child involvement in gangs, drugs and other criminal activity a "slow suicide" whereby the children of this community "are gradually giving up on themselves."

Kotzlowitz said, the biggest impediment to change was the apathy among members of the community and institutions serving the area, such as the police, welfare agencies and correctional departments.

He praised community organizations that work as "reservoirs of respect and dignity" and called for more federal support for these institutions.

'Mere Indifference'

Responding to a question from the audience, Kotzlowitz took the opportunity to criticize "A Thousand Points of Light," President Bush's volunteer program. He called it a "mere institutionalization of the indifference that has characterized the nation's focus on urban problems."

Kotzlowitz called for a more of a hands-on effort by the federal government to address the mounting problems in the cities.

Coles, speaking next, expanded on Kotzlowitz's statements and said the social pathologies of the ghetto were only one part of a broader national problem. "The problems are not only social and economic but moral and spiritual," he said.

Coles said the country had "lost its moral foundation" and had become "a valueless society...without a purpose."

Coles used as an example, Black families involved in the Civil Rights movement. He said they persevered because they maintained the moral foundation of the family structure.

Bane, who was the final speaker, urged the public to reexamine organizations such as welfare and recognize the important role they play in addressing inner-city problems.

The problems of the inner-cities should not be seen as just "their problem" but as "our problem as a community," she said.

The event was sponsored by the Boston Foundation and the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy.